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A brilliant post by Radley Balko.
Money quote:
Reading an explicitly worded amendment to the Constitution as it was written puts you in company with 9/11 conspiracists, while the serious, non-crazy, mainstream position is simply picking and choosing those portions of the Constitution you find agreeable.
Jamie posted this at 10:20 AM HKT on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 as We don't need no stinkin' Constitution
. . . but it seems hard to describe this in better terms. Tying a somewhat unpopular bill to the single least popular policy proposal of the last decade doesn’t seem like a sound political move. Since the president flopped in his big speech last week, I’ve presumed that ObamaCare was dead. Now I’m sure of it.
Some of us warned during the 2008 primaries that Obama was nothing more than a creature of the far left, and while his speeches might leave a few feeling week in the knees, he would ultimately be unable to persuade the masses to follow him. In the circles he’s used to traveling in, the fact that a health care proposal won’t cover illegal immigrants is a bad thing. He doesn’t understand the country well enough to know that the rambling leftism that passed for discourse in Hyde Park doesn’t help him nationally.
Apollo posted this at 3:45 PM HKT on Friday, September 18th, 2009 as Barack Obama Couldn't Persuade a Bear to Crap in the Woods, Health Care
Thank you, Jonah.
Jamie posted this at 2:09 PM HKT on Friday, September 18th, 2009 as Race, There Is Only One God And Jonah Goldberg Is His Prophet
GOP frets it’s too surly with the fringe on top
(H/T)
Hubbard posted this at 12:41 PM HKT on Friday, September 18th, 2009 as Conservatism, Humor, Politics
Both of these videos from Reason.tv are worth watching:
Jamie posted this at 10:57 AM HKT on Friday, September 18th, 2009 as Conservatism
Thought of the day: I’m studying under Tom Pangle, who once roomed with Alan Keyes, who ran for Senate in 2004 when Jack Ryan dropped out due to a sex scandal involving his wife, Jeri Ryan.
Dorothy posted this at 12:32 AM HKT on Friday, September 18th, 2009 as Nerdom, Ourselves
Today’s WSJ had a couple of stories that, combined, give a pretty detailed account of particular problem with Obama’s healthcare sales pitch.
First, Turdblossom:
Part of Mr. Obama’s problem is his language. His speech contained little new information and his tone was unpresidential. Instead of binding Americans to his cause, he called legitimate concerns “misinformation,” “false,” “demagoguery,” “distortion” or “tall tales.” Earlier in the week he declared them “lies.” This was like calling people with concerns stupid, and it’s not the way to win them over.
Take the issue of illegal aliens. The president’s assertion that his reform “would not apply to those who are here illegally” drew an angry eruption from a GOP House backbencher. Then late Friday night, the White House quietly announced that proof of citizenship would be required to enroll in the president’s health plan. This closed the loophole that provoked Rep. Joe Wilson. Had Mr. Obama acknowledged the concern and offered a solution in his speech, he would have come across as reasonable.
I think he’s incorrect that this should be described as a “language” issue. Instead, it’s a credibility issue. Obama says that his critics are just flat out lying, and instead of showing people why the criticisms are not correct, he just asserts it. This way, Obama simply makes it a matter of how much we blindly trust him. Rove correctly points out that it doesn’t have to be that way. Admitting that there are some imperfections in the bill, making a big show of accomodating critics – these things would go an awful long way in showing that Obama is serious about getting something done.
The second story was on page 4 with the devastatingly accurate headline “Obama Used Faulty Anecdote in Speech to Congress“:
An Illinois man getting chemotherapy was dropped from his insurance plan when his insurer discovered an unreported gallstone the patient hadn’t known about.
“They delayed his treatment, and he died because of it,” the president said in the nationally televised address.
In fact, the man, Otto S. Raddatz, didn’t die because the insurance company rescinded his coverage once he became ill, an act known as recission. The efforts of his sister and the office of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan got Mr. Raddatz’s policy reinstated within three weeks of his April 2005 rescission and secured a life-extending stem-cell transplant for him. Mr. Raddatz died this year, nearly four years after the insurance showdown.
Obama aides say the president got the essence of the story correct. Mr. Raddatz was dropped from his insurance plan weeks before a scheduled stem-cell transplant.
Getting the “essence” correct? When you’re advocating a radical policy change and you turn the debate into little more than a “who you gonna believe?” competition, getting the “essence” correct isn’t good enough. The story goes on to note that Raddatz being dropped by his insurance company probably had nothing to do with his death, which means that the president didn’t even get the “essence” correct: the essence is that this guy got dropped, some pressure was applied and the company reinstated his coverage, he got the treatment he needed, and he lived as long as that treatment would allow. If we were to draw a lesson from the “essence” of that story, it would be that we should make a few minor changes to insurance laws to prevent companies from dropping coverage, or courts should get more aggressive in enforcing insurance contracts in favor of the insured.
But instead Obama told got the facts wrong and drew a completely different conclusion. That’s what happens when you change the facts of a story – the lesson changes as well.
So who you gonna believe: People opposing ObamaCare, or the guy who can’t be bothered to fact check his stories before speaking to a joint session of Congress in a speech largely designed to call his critics liars? Even if people don’t fully trust critics, Obama’s made it quite clear that he can’t be trusted at all.
Apollo posted this at 5:19 PM HKT on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 as Barack Obama Couldn't Persuade a Bear to Crap in the Woods, Health Care
Back in the campaign days, some people thought that Obama would butter up allies as opposed to what Bush did. Others were somewhat more skeptical.
It appears that the skeptics, unfortunately, were right. By cancelling missle defense, Obama has infuriated Poland and the Czech Republic:
The former Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolanek, said: “This is not good news for the Czech state, for Czech freedom and independence. It puts us in a position wherein we are not firmly anchored in terms of partnership, security and alliance, and that’s a certain threat.”
The Polish deputy foreign minister, Andrzej Kremer, saidthat Warsaw had heard from different sources there were “serious chances” the anti-missile system would not be deployed.
Further, it appears that Obama has done this and gained nothing from Russia:
Russia on Thursday welcomed the news, but said it saw no reason to offer concessions in return. At one point earlier this year, Russia President Dmitry Medvedev threatened last November to station tactical Iskander missiles on Poland’s border if the U.S. system was deployed.
Not even touching on the missile defense fiasco, David Frum lists other Obama blunders. Mona Charen calls this policy “Coddle your enemies, betray your friends.”
Joseph Fouche would probably summarize Obama’s actions with his most memorable quotation: “It was worse than a crime; it was an unforced error.”
Hubbard posted this at 1:25 PM HKT on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 as CHANGE!, Europa Universalis
Compare and contrast the coverage of the ACORN Scandal between two news organizations.
First up NBC:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Next another news organization:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| The Audacity of Hos | ||||
|
||||
Oh that’s right, The Daily Show is fake. Why is it that they are the only ones reporting the real story here?
(H/T)
Jamie posted this at 12:41 PM HKT on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 as Journalism
Apparently, Rojo is a real restaurant.
Hubbard posted this at 3:31 PM HKT on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 as Uncategorized
You write this…
The pattern is now clear: the imperative to play the political game has won on the right. The longer-term pattern is just as clear: a faction of congressional Democrats sometimes backed Bush on his initiatives (such as his tax cuts). No one in the Congressional Limbaugh-run GOP will back anything this president does. Not only that; they will assault him, race-bait him and insult him in a continuous reel of populist bile.
Surely he can’t be serious (and don’t call him Shirley). The fact that no Republican supports Obama’s Health Care ReformTM (is there even a bill yet?) is a sign of a poisonous right? Wouldn’t it be more likely that whatever reforms he is trying to pass are misguided? Wrongheaded? Bad? What a sorry joke this man has become.
The High Priest to the Holy One’s slow slip into insanity has been bothering me for some time now. At first it was stupifaction at how a self professed, and seemingly, conservative man could back a decidedly liberal candidate. This then turned into annoyance as he not only reluctantly backed such a staunch liberal, but went in whole hog. Eventually I became mildly amused in a “What the hell is he going to say next” kind of way. Now? Now I just hate the man. His shameless shiling and rampant dishonesty about anything connected with Barack Obama would be laughable if he wasn’t so inexplicably popular.
I will put it in terms that maybe he can understand: No conservative, and certainly no “Conservative of Doubt”, could enthusiastically support a man who seeks to make such drastic changes to a massive portion of our economy. Anger at Bush’s betrayal of conservative principles on limited government can only take you so far. To unquestioningly support such a massive increase in both spending and the scope of government is what liberals do, Andrew, not conservatives.
You admonished Republicans for not standing up for limited government in the Bush years, and rightly so. They finally have and now they are again in the wrong. What is the term for a person who does things like this? Oh yes…partisan hack.
Whose playing politics here Andrew? All I see from you is blind loyalty to, and support for, a very liberal President.
Jamie posted this at 1:24 PM HKT on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 as What Ever Happened to Andrew Sullivan?
Jamie posted this at 11:55 AM HKT on Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 as Humor
God bless you James Tiberius Kirk
Jamie posted this at 1:44 PM HKT on Monday, September 14th, 2009 as Humor
Norman Borlaug died this weekend.
He makes a case for Greatest American and maybe even Greatest Human.
A true loss.
Jamie posted this at 10:56 AM HKT on Monday, September 14th, 2009 as Heroes